


Maybe, Just Maybe

by MissScorp



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Angst, Character internal thoughts, Dealing with past history, Foreshadowing, Gen, Guilt and Regret, Owen Shannon realizes he was wrong about Malcolm, Resolving conflicts, Shame, making amends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-24
Updated: 2020-01-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:20:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22391650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissScorp/pseuds/MissScorp
Summary: Maybe, just maybe he had been wrong about the kid for all these years.
Relationships: Malcolm Bright & Owen Shannon
Comments: 10
Kudos: 47





	Maybe, Just Maybe

As he sat there in Ian's storage unit and watched the kid going through his old files on The Surgeon, Owen Shannon couldn't help but think that maybe, just _maybe_ he made a mistake in that interrogation room all those years ago.

Maybe, just _maybe_ his anger over not being the one who discovered the identity of The Surgeon blinded him, kept him from seeing how wrong it was for him to aggressively interrogate an eleven-year-old kid. He bullied the boy. He knew it and the kid knew it.

Maybe, just _maybe_ his bullying of him were why the kid developed that hand tremor of his.

Maybe, just _maybe_ , he let his hate for Ian and all the rest who didn't believe him about The Surgeon having an accomplice helping him commit his murders become a festering wound. One that years of whiskey and whatever else he could pour down his gullet kept good and raw.

Maybe, just _maybe_ he took his bitterness over losing the glory from the biggest collar this century out on the wrong person. _Persons_ , he corrected, gut twisting as the kid returned to the board covered in newspaper clippings and photographs. He took his anger and resentment out on the Lucky Boy, Ian, and especially the kid here.

And speaking of Malcolm Whitly — _no, Bright_ , he corrected — maybe, just _maybe_ the kid was as much a victim as all those people the Surgeon and his accomplice tortured and murdered. Why else did the kid only have fragments of memories and chunks of missing time?

What did Martin Whitly do to his boy if he wasn't grooming him to follow in his footsteps? Suspicion streaked through Shannon but he kept his thoughts to himself. _No need to upset the kid when we might finally be on the right path to who his father's accomplice was_.

"You think Ian figured out your father's accomplice was this Junkyard Killer?"

"Yes." The kid's face was grim in the dim light. "That's why he killed him."

"Covering his tracks so we can't figure out who he is."

"Paul Lazar doesn't like his work interrupted."

"Interrupted?" Shannon reached into his jacket pocket for his ever faithful flask of whiskey but remembered he tossed it earlier in a fit of rage. _Probably for the best_ , he decided. "What? He thinks he's the bloody messiah or something?"

"He believes he's on a messianic mission." The kid pointed to a few of the more recent photographs on the board. "He believes he's cleaning up the streets by getting rid of the drug addicts and prostitutes."

"Makes him more ideal than you to serve as your father's accomplice."

He regretted the words the moment they left his mouth. The kid's flinch told him he struck a nerve. Guilt mixed with the whiskey sloshing around in his gut. He made to apologize but the words stuck in his throat.

It wasn't easy to say sorry after twenty-one years of thinking the worst of someone.

For twenty-one years he believed the kid knew more than he was telling them.

For twenty-one years he believed the kid to have been Martin Whitly's accomplice.

Maybe, just _maybe_ he had been wrong.

And maybe, just _maybe_ , it was time to set things right.

Before it was too late.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, all, and welcome! This piece came to me after watching episode 1x10, Silent Night. It's what I like to think were the internal thoughts Shannon was having as he and Malcolm were in that storage unit and piecing together what Ian Turner was doing. I kinda hoped we'd get more of Sean Pertwee and a bigger redemption arc but take what you get, right? Hopefully, people enjoy this little bit of a continuation of the storage unit scene. Take care, all!


End file.
